Types within Contacts do not seem to match between different devices

Hi to you! Maybe a small issue. I have a Samsung J5 phone, a Galaxy Tab A 2016 and use Thunderbird with Cardbook on two computers. The contacts are synchronized between these devices.

Now I find that in Cardbook, NextCloud and the Samsung devices for contacts different types are possible. I mean the Work, CellPhone, Direct Line, Home, Private and so on fields. After being through the various syncs these types get hurt or replaced. Within Cardbook and Samsung you can set the types. But then again after syncing they do not change to the same on all devices. Within NextCloud there seems to be no possibility to set the types.

I would like this to be possible, are there others that have noticed this?

Best Regards, Cees

There is currently no main responsible for CardDAV and the contact app, perhaps some of the android-client guys know this by chance @Andy @tobiasKaminsky

Not my area of expertise :frowning: since this is either server cc @MorrisJobke or DAVdroid @davdroid

@NextCees By type you mean the TYPE attribute for the vCard entry TEL, right? (see vCard - Wikipedia)

For me the contact app shows this information:

When clicking “Mobile” or “Voice” the menu shows the different types:

Is this what you are looking for?

Hello Morris,
Yes indeed. In the meantime I have been learning about this. It seems that standard words are used and on some devices you can create your own. Samsung devices, I now found out, have standard English words like CELL, HOME, WORK and so on. If you give then an other dutch word like WORK=Zakelijk these Samsung devices will overwrite it with an English type but also remember “Zakelijk”.

With the help of Philippe VIGNEAU (wrote Cardbook for Thunderbird!) I do now understand this mechanism, I hope/think. Each device like NextCloud, Samsung phone or Cardbook should use the English types.

Samsung then allows you to write your translation and seems to automatically remember it. Vcard output gives english types.

Cardbook has a translation table that you can fill in to get the right translation to use in the user interface. The vcard it displays gives English types.

NextCloud seems also to remember the translation, no idea how that works. If you export vcards it also gives the English types.

Anyway currently it works sufficiently between the mentioned equipment and I am very happy!! NextCloud works super!

Thanks for your help!
Best regards, Cees.

Dear All,
I have been digging into this issue further. I have found what others already found out to. Each equipment that uses VCARD 2.1, 3.0 or 4.0 uses its own interpretation of the IETF standard. That is why the type fields get distorted and possibly other information as well.

See also https://alessandrorossini.org/the-sad-story-of-the-vcard-format-and-its-lack-of-interoperability/

Anyway I have to live with this up to the moment that Apple, Google, Samsung and all smaller software creators will adhere to one single standard.

Best regards, Cees.

Hi,

I also have some problems with type attributes for telephone numbers.

Does anybody know at which database table and column the type attributes are stored in nextcloud?

Best regards, Erwin

Hello Erwin,
To be honest I have given up on this after I noticed that if I changed, via the webinterface, the NextCloud entries they would change back to what they were before. I blame this on the Samsung phone and tablet that I own. There seem to be various interpretations of what the field names are called, maybe it is free, but then if Samsung prevails you have no chance.
Best Regards, Cees

Sometimes I had the suspicion, that the NC Contacts app wasn’t in accordance with the database data.
Thus I searched where the type attributes are stored, but didn’t find them.

Finally this is solved! Woooooww, it is working flawlessly now!

I installed another app for synchronisation between NextCloud and Android devices being ContactSync from Annemarie Böhmer. It translates fantastic between vcard 2.1 and 3.0! . Now everything works fine, all details show up right on on my phone, tablet and Cardbook, I am so happy! (Maybe DavDroid should have done this also?)